Thompson Speedway: No bumper but Barnett has another title

Monday

Leaning on his car in the pits at Thompson Speedway, Larry Barnett couldn’t help but smile Sunday.

Leaning on his car in the pits at Thompson Speedway, Larry Barnett couldn’t help but smile Sunday.

His No. 73 car was literally half of what it was when it started the final 20-lap points race of the season, it’s rear bumper torn away.

But even in its diminished condition, the car carried Barnett to his second straight and fourth Limited Sportsman points championship of his career.

“They’re all good, but this one, nothing went really smooth all year,” Barnett said of his newest title. “We had to work so hard. It hasn’t been accident damage, but the struggles between motors and upper-control arms, we were never as good as last year.”

Leading by 18 points coming into the final race Sunday, Barnett had only one thing on his mind; keeping track of Scott Sundeen, the man in second in the points battle.

That didn’t seemto be a problem for the first 14 laps of the race when Barnett was running fourth, comfortably ahead Sundeen and third-place points contender Shawn Monahan. But a spin in turn three by Kris LaRochelle brought out the caution and bunched the field up, Barnett starting on the outside in the double-file restart behind leader Brett Gleason.

“I was about to move into second. I had half a car on the No. 21 (William Wall), and then apparently Shawn drove right through Moose Douton or vice versa, whatever, and they drove right into me,” the Moosup driver described.

Multiple drivers banged into him as he went into the first-turn wall and came down with his rear bumper scraping the ground.

“It was like ‘Oh boy, here we go. We messed it up’, and (Sundeen) made it through the pile unscathed,” Barnett said.

Barnett quickly went into the pits and had the sheetmetal ripped away. He came back out, but was stopped on the frontstretch by officials who were concerned that his car was still a “hazard” to other drivers. They allowed Barnett to go back into the pits and rip more sheetmetal away. He came back out before the restart and was helped when the field went back into a bumper car mentality and after numerous incidents, Barnett counted himself in ninth spot. He would be unable to get any further because Sundeen’s son, Jay, was in front of him.

“The potential champion’s son forgot where his gas pedal was on the last lap right in front of me, cost me a spot or two and was a little embarassing for them,” Barnett said.

Jay Sundeen said he wasn’t trying to block Barnett’s advance.

“I wasn’t trying to block Larry, I was just trying to hang on, I haven’t driven this thing in...I don’t even know what the point situation is,” Jay Sundeen said.

Barnett took ninth and beat Scott Sundeen by two points for the title.

“It’s disappointing, but you can’t cry over it,” Scott Sundeen said. “I try to win races now. My goal was to win a championship, I did it in 2008, and my goal now is to have fun, win races and help Jay have fun.”

Ramstrom wins

Derek Ramstrom went into the final race with just a two-point lead over Larry Gelinas and Mike O’Sullivan. To make matters even worse, his 19th birthday present was a blown motor in practice.

“I didn’t know where we would find a motor and we just ran around the pits asking people,” Ramstrom said. “Went to (George Bessette’s team) and they had a crate motor that had been hanging around the shop for two years, they dug it out, we got it running, a little down on power, but it got the job done.”

Ramstrom finished second to O’Sullivan, but owned the tiebreaker, most wins this season, to capture the Super Late Model championship.

Gentes gets another

It’s been a pretty good run for Rick Gentes.

He’s been driving for 18 years and on Sunday, captured his fourth points championship in the Late Model Division to go along with his seven runner-up finishes.

“This is by far the best division to run,” Gentes said. “I’ve driven a lot of different cars and the most fun I’ve had, hands down, is running these.”

Gentes would have liked to win the race as well, but finished second to Tommy O’Sullivan.

Other races

R.J. Marcotte captured his first-ever championship at Thompson. His second-place finish to Cam McDermott in the Thompson Modifieds 20-lap feature gave him the division title.

The Sunoco Modified championship had already been won by Ted Christopher. He finished fourth behind winner Ronnie Silk who captured his first win in the division this season. The Mini Stocks were the same with Quaker Hill’s Chuck Rogers having already won the points war coming in. Ledyard’s Dwayne Dorr finished as the season’s winningest driver. He captured his fourth checkered flag on Sunday.

The capper to the night saw Whelen Modified Tour rookie Justin Bonsignore capture his first ever win at Thompson when he won the 40-lap Tour-type Modified race.

“It’s really good. A lot of good guys have won this race. There’s a good field of cars and it’s a good tune up for the World Series (of Auto Racing runs at Thompson in October),” Bonsignore said.

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